One CEO’s Rx for a doctor shortage

Albany, Mo., population 1,730, was sorely lacking doctors and nurses. Nearly a quarter of Americans live in rural towns like Albany, but only a tenth of the nation’s doctors practice there.

Albany’s 25-bed hospital had re­­sorted to employing a recruiter.

“You pretty much took what you could get,” says the hospital’s retired CEO, John Richmond. At his wits’ end, Richmond decided it was pointless to try to lure people in.

He began speaking in local schools about the rewards of caring for family and neighbors, and he started “pipeline” programs in which kids would shadow medical staff on their rounds. He also gave students paying jobs.

And those who showed a spark got financial aid for their medical studies in exchange for coming home to work for a number of years. Second-careerists could do the same.